Katie Collins is one of the nation’s top teachers. And not long ago, she thought of leaving the classroom.
“I was on a carpet with kids, feeling alone, even though I have so much support at my school and everybody is all in for kids,” said Collins, a 1st grade teacher at Bluff Park Elementary in Hoover, Ala. and one of the finalists for the 2026 National Teacher of the Year award sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Rising stress and struggles with work-life balance can lead to burnout among even the most devoted teachers. Thhis year’s finalists for the top teaching prize called for a broader discussion of those factors.
“Teachers still feel alone. We are regulating very dysregulated children and we’re dysregulated ourselves. We’ve got to understand and have real conversations about what is happening … with the mental health crisis, and we have to recognize that within ourselves,” Collins said.
She and other finalists talked with Education Week about how they keep their spark for teaching—and what administrators and peers can do to better support teachers.
The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Find joy and meaning
Michelle Gross, 7th grade mathematics and gifted studies, Spencer County Middle School, Taylorsville, Ky.: Teachers will thrive when they feel connected and when they have purpose. Of course, all our jobs are stressful, but I feel like my job is really meaningful. I have a purpose, I feel connected to my school. I feel connected to my community. I’m involved in my church and I have a good group of friends. When I need to manage stress, I take time for myself and just have conversations with friends.
Leon Smith, Advanced Placement U.S. History and African American Studies teacher, Haverford High School, Havertown, Pa.: In the last five to six years I’ve been involved in advocacy, really trying to use my experiences in the classroom to speak to legislators or other groups that can support my students. Certainly you can be a subject-matter expert, you can create a community environment in your classroom, but you can also advocate for your students outside of the classroom.
Linda “Wally” Wallenberg, a 50-year veteran English teacher, Eden Prairie High School, Eden Prairie, Minn.: We just finished [a project] where students make a quilt square where I give them a big piece of 12-by-12 paper that they wrote quotes on. There are 24 quilt squares where students have gone home and made those quotes their own: “To err is human; to forgive divine”; ” “This too shall pass”; “Not all those that wander are lost.” It gives me so much hope to see that something I offered actually helps students find their own path.
Rachel Kinsaul, agriculture teacher, Morgan County High School, Madison, Ga.: Sometimes rest and relaxation looks very different from other people. For me it creates more work for myself, but it’s a different kind of work; something that I don’t have to think that much about that brings me a lot of joy. I have a cut-flower garden in my yard, and I cut enough flowers for 20-something teachers to make little jars from. Do something that brings you joy; that’s how you rest and recharge.
Support connections among teachers and students
Smith: It’s important for our administrators to make sure that the environments that exist in our schools are environments of dignity and belonging. It’s important that we have teachers from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives … but once [young teachers] are in, we need to make sure they feel cared for, especially if we’re talking about young teachers of color. It’s important for principals, administrators, to check on them: “How are you doing? How can I support you?” … Not just pedagogical support, but also social and emotional support, because it can be very lonely when you’re one of the only people like you in the building.
Wallenberg: I coach preschool gymnastics four days a week, and there’s something amazing when I leave the classroom here after we’ve just had a very intense discussion about “Hamlet” or Of Mice and Men that is just at this very, very high, intense level. And then I walk in the gym and I’m welcomed in with unbridled joy as these little ones look for guidance. And it really gives me a lot of perspective to just show up.
Build teacher-administrator trust
Gross: [The most supportive administrators] have given me trust, have not micromanaged me to the point that I don’t feel like I can thrive. My current principal is one of the most humble ladies I’ve ever met. When she’s presented with a problem, she doesn’t just like make a rash decision; she, comes to the table and sees how it’ll benefit all before she makes a decision.
Collins: Look into resiliency research. We’ve got to get the message to our students that we trust you, you can do this … and also get the message to teachers that we trust you. Because when we can trust each other, y’all, the sky is the limit. We have so much untapped potential in our schools right now, and we’ve got to tap into that.
Don’t waste teachers’ time
Smith: For administrators, valuing the time of educators is so important. Teaching is a profession where people pour their heart into it, they care so much, and their time is so valuable. There are meetings sometimes where you sit there like, man, this could have just been an email. Teachers feel a little frustrated by that.
Kinsaul: One of the things that has really struck me in the last couple years is [teaching students] a sense of urgency and initiative. I don’t want students to stand there like, “I don’t know what to do.’ I’m trying to teach them that we look around and we find things to do, like sweeping, and we take care of it. That means if I’m working, [the students] are working and we’re not sitting down.
I have some [agriculture] teacher friends who try to do stuff on the side, and I could not do everything if it was not a part of my curriculum, part of my class day. Incorporating [projects like floral design] into my curriculum and having the students be a part of it is the only way that I can get all of that stuff done.
Gross: I do have to step back sometimes, especially when I get bogged down with the to-do list, to look at what’s most important. For me, creating vibrant learning experiences for my students is important and creating space for them is important. I have to often think through, what’s the most important way to spend my time right now? Because if I didn’t do that, I would be working all hours of the day.
Give yourself and others grace
Collins: As an educator, if you are going to do project-based learning, you have to be OK that it might not work out the first time. That is life; your calendar on paper doesn’t always work out perfectly. Kids have agency and kids have permission to fail—and I also have permission to fail and make mistakes, to go back to the drawing board, fix it, or maybe make it even better.
Smith: You’ve got to give yourself grace, and at some point you’ve got to go to sleep. I think that there were times when I tried to create the perfect lesson—I’m so meticulous—but if you’re going to bed at 2 a.m. and you’ve got to wake up at 5 a.m., then the execution of that lesson is not going to go to well; your synapses are not going to be firing the way you want them to fire. You need to get rest and you have to carve out time for yourself. It’s hard.